Transport: South West
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make a comparative assessment of transport expenditure per capital in the South West with other English regions in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
The following table provides comparison data for each region for transport expenditure per head by the Department for Transport for recent years:
Per Capita Spend (£) Based on DfT spend for 2021-2022 to 2024-2025
ITL Region | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
ENGLAND_North East | 293.93 | 304.78 | 310.15 | 301.14 | - |
ENGLAND_North West | 443.06 | 475.91 | 515.50 | 470.46 | - |
ENGLAND_Yorkshire and the Humber | 274.67 | 279.09 | 331.19 | 309.93 | - |
ENGLAND_East Midlands | 264.32 | 253.99 | 253.21 | 253.17 | - |
ENGLAND_West Midlands | 464.79 | 478.15 | 534.57 | 497.15 | - |
ENGLAND_East | 464.85 | 418.72 | 465.14 | 471.57 | - |
ENGLAND_London | 703.66 | 735.24 | 779.29 | 727.63 | - |
ENGLAND_South East | 527.35 | 475.76 | 515.37 | 507.87 | - |
ENGLAND_South West | 274.30 | 255.09 | 294.22 | 299.33 | - |
The 2026 CRA report is not yet published so data for 2025/2026 is currently unavailable
Notes:
This data has been calculated using source data from the Country and Regional Excel Database which forms part of the Country and regional analysis: 2025 - GOV.UK
The data used has been filtered to show the total spend from the Department for Transport to include all identifiable spend (capital and resource) on transport by the Department for Transport and its partner bodies.
Population data has been sourced from the ONS for the year 2025, to enable a per capita calculation to be carried out and presented in the table above.
The figures presented are given in nominal terms.
Spend by devolved bodies such as Transport for Greater Manchester and Transport for London is not included in this analysis. Private sector expenditure on transport is also not included in these figures.
The regional analyses presented in this analysis show where the individuals and enterprises that benefited from public spending were located rather than where the spending was made. It does not mean that all such spending was planned to benefit a particular region, because only a minority of public spending is planned on a regional basis.
The methods used to allocate expenditure between countries and regions may be subject to changes over time, so changes from year to year may reflect differences in methodology rather than real changes.
The ‘per person calculation for a region does not account for the number of daily commuters and visitors to that region, both domestically and internationally, who may use and benefit from the roads and public transport networks, but who are not residents of that region.
The methods used to allocate expenditure between countries and regions may be subject to changes over time, so changes from year to year may reflect differences in methodology rather than real changes.
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